Jennifer Skirkanich updated her kitchen exhaust fan after an air quality monitor reminded her just how dangerous cooking can be. “You don’t ever think about it, but seeing the light turn red is like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s harmful,’” says Skirkanich, a biologist and West Philadelphia resident who teaches at Bryn Mawr College. Skirkanich’s air quality
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David Oh served as at-large City Councilmember (Republican) from 2012 to 2023, when he resigned to run for mayor. Oh worked as an attorney before running for City Council and served in the Army National Guard from 1988 to 1992. On Parks Funding The fact that Philadelphia is spending less proportionally of its own budget,
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Carol Foy, a lifelong Grays Ferry resident and community advocate, knows how dangerous air pollution can be. “I lost a son over a decade ago who had lung problems,” she says. “He was only 33 years old.” After moving out of Grays Ferry, her son moved by the oil refinery in South Philadelphia. He lived
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Last week, Clean Air Council (CAC) released a petition urging Philadelphia residents to demand a public hearing to advocate for improved air quality. The Council found that the region is not meeting federal air quality standards for ozone pollution in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties. “Ground-level ozone air pollution, known as smog, is
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In the 340 years since Philadelphia’s founding, the city’s landscape has constantly shifted, as waves of development and redevelopment shipped out with the old and in with the new. Unfortunately, on many occasions across the city, transitions went terribly wrong. Consider Logan Triangle, a 35-acre site in North Philadelphia where developers filled in a creek
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On May 11 the EPA proposed carbon emissions standards limiting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. If adopted, the standards would reduce total carbon dioxide (CO2) by 617 million metric tons — the equivalent of reducing the annual emissions produced by 137 million passenger cars — through 2042. The rule would also reduce particulate emissions
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The 2019 PES oil refinery explosion in South Philadelphia opened the door for a brighter future after more than a century of fossil fuel pollution. But four years later, many questions remain unanswered by new owner Hilco Redevelopment Partners. In September 2019 I plopped into a kayak and pushed off the eastern banks of the
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Lots of nasty stuff comes out of motor vehicle tailpipes. The policy discussion around shifting away from internal combustion engines and towards electric vehicles tends to focus on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, but pollution like nitrogen dioxide can make people sick by worsening asthma and other respiratory diseases. A new study has now connected the
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If you’re looking for another reason to electrify your house and quit PGW, fresh research describes how scientists with PSE Healthy Energy examining samples of fossil gas from homes across the state of California found volatile organic compounds, including the carcinogen benzene. A study from this summer found similar mixes of pollutants in gas provided
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There are six trash-burning power plants in eastern Pennsylvania, “and Philly sends trash to all of them,” the Clean Air Council’s Russell Zerbo wrote in Grid. On October 4, a group of 274 environmental organizations signed a letter to the White House Council on Environmental Quality asking the advisory group to direct the EPA to
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Imagine walking through Center City and, on every single block, there’s a loud, deafening noise and visible and malodorous emissions emanating from a large box. You call 911 to report it, but, even though they say someone will come check, no one ever shows up. You investigate further and see many online comments about it;
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